It’s been a little quiet around here since the last episode of PUP, so I wanted to update you all with what’s going on.

I’m picking up and moving in less than two weeks.  I’m moving from this tiny town in Ohio I currently live in to just outside of San Diego, CA.  I’m incredibly excited to move, but preparing for the move and driving across the country is taking up much of my time.  With that being said, much of this blog will take a short hiatus until I’m set up out there.

The podcast will be releasing a few weeks late this month, due to my move and Musim’s upcoming busy schedule (it’s a busy month for everyone).  If it misses this month completely, I’ll throw something into the podcast feed during the break.

I’ll be continuing my playthrough of Final Fantasy VII, as well.  I’m really looking forward to sitting down and playing it again, but packing everything up and playing an RPG don’t typically mix.

I’ll be back and updating before you know it.  Thanks for reading PUP!

Image courtesy Friends Of Type

Despite a few audio issues on my end, we chat about the Mass Effect trilogy (spoiler free!), Wasteland, Mother, Bard’s Tale, Star Control II, SMT: Devil Survivor 2, and Final Fantasy VII.

• Wasteland 2 Kickstarter is well on its way
• Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2 Enhanced Editions coming this Summer
• Banner Saga Kickstarter is well on its way to Viking glory
• And Monkey Paw tries to publish a game via Kickstarter
• And the unannounced Dragon Age II expansion was cancelled

I left off last time on my way to Tifa’s bar to meet Tifa and Marlene.  I’m a little disappointed that giving the flower I bought from Aerith to Marlene didn’t get a reaction.  I’m sure Tifa would have liked the flower, but it’s awfully cute to give Marlene the flower.  The whole cast drops it like it never happened.  An odd thing for me to pick on, granted, but JRPGs usually thrive on that stuff.  Side note: Barrett (who is holding Marlene with his gun hand) eventually addresses it.  That’s the risk of writing this stuff as I play, I guess.

Very few things in life bother me as much as double punctuation at the end of sentences (dorky, I know).  The translators rely on them a little too much, especially when characters are very excited.  And I thought the last paragraph was nitpicky.

I like how Cloud’s answers to questions are the most dickish possible.  Most JRPG heroes will have a choice between “I’m interested…” and “No thanks…” to someone’s intent to tell a story.  But Cloud?  Wedge says, “Anyway, let me tell you somethin’”, to which Cloud can reply, “About what?” or “I’m not interested in your stories.”  A little cold there, Cloud.  You’re not going to make friends that way.

Either Tifa’s a little thick or the translation is a little wonky; when Tifa asks how Cloud slept, I chose “Next to you, who wouldn’t?”  She responds, “I don’t know what you mean.”  I’m trying to flirt with you, Tifa!  I’d like to go on a date with you when we visit the Golden Saucer!  Sheesh.

Now we’re off to destroy another Reactor and likely kill a significant number of totally innocent people.  Yay AVALANCHE!

FF7 moves along a little faster than I remember, with Cloud’s visit to Reactor 5 starting a flashback (inlcuding Tifa in her Little Cowboy Tifa outfit).  I didn’t remember any of that happening until after getting out of Midgar (which is a problem in and of itself).  It’s definitely used well, keeping the player guessing where the characters are, what time period it’s in, and why there’s a giant sword there.  And the few mentions of Sephiroth are used to great effect, you get a good sense of the admiration that most feel for their hero.

Sweet Christmas, there are save points everywhere.  That’s definitely a good problem to have, though.

Y’know, Limit Breaks are still pretty cool.  There’s something totally over the top about them, sure, but in a game where almost all the summons are way, way over the top, it seems alright.  And there’s something very satisfying about breaking one of those Limit Breaks out on a regular enemy, just decimating them.

I like how Barret is surprised that Shinra set a trap for AVALANCHE, who basically are the dumbest terrorist group in history.  They don’t think that Shinra would figure out that they’d attack the next reactor (literally next to it) after tripping a serious amount of security checks on the train over the very next day.  No, AVALANCHE didn’t wait a few days or a few weeks, they went to the next reactor the next day.  And didn’t run into any Shinra forces, either.  What kind of group has Cloud gotten himself in with?

The most impressive thing, though?  Getting a helicopter down near the reactor.  That’s some very impressive skills.

When Cloud crash lands into Aerith’s flower bed, it seems like he has someone speaking to him in his mind.  You’d think that Cloud would be a little more worried about something like that, but he uses it to his advantage when chatting with one of the Turks.  I wish I remembered more of the story to remind myself what’s happening there.

And with another reactor down, Aerith saved, and a potential date gone horribly wrong, I think that’s it for another day of FF7.  Until next time!

So I’ve talked a lot of yang about Final Fantasy VII (FF7) over the years.  My opinion of it has cooled considerably from its original release. I, along with virtually everyone else who either owned an original PlayStation (PSX) or intended to own one, were chomping at the bit for this game.  I mean, I still have the original SquareSoft VHS tape that had a trailer on it that I may or may not have watched an embarrassing number of times.

But along the way, I started to turn on it.  Crying about how Sephiroth wasn’t a great villain, Cloud was a super douche, Aerith wasn’t a great character, so on and so forth.  I’m not even sure why I started to turn.  But I haven’t played the game since it came out.  So let’s fix that now, as FF7 approaches its 15th anniversary here in the states (September 15th, be what I’m seeing).

So I’m going to be starting FF7 again.  Here’s the short details and expectations of what I’ll be playing:

•  I’ll be writing stuff as I play, so some ideas may turn out a bit disjointed
• Even though I own an original black label PSX copy, I’ll be playing the PSN version on my PSP.  There’s nothing like watching TV on the couch while you JRPG grind
• I’ll be referring to her as Aerith for the entire playthrough.  Please don’t write in, it’s been discussed to death elsewhere and it’s officially Aerith
• I won’t be getting Knights Of the Round.  That’s just crazy, I don’t have that kind of time
• I likely won’t be going crazy with optional side quests unless I get really super involved

With all that groundwork laid, let’s get into FF7!

Of course the game starts off with the classic Crystal Theme, which has been sorely lacking from recent FF games.  It was nice to fire up FF7 and know that I’m getting into another Final Fantasy game, one that was such a landmark of JRPG music.  It’s a guarantee that I’ll be talking about the music at every opportunity.

Even though, graphically, the game leaves a lot to be desired today, the direction of the opening cutscene is fantastic.  The pan out over Midgar, the quick cuts to the train, and the eventual direct transition from CG to pre-rendered backgrounds is fantastic.  Hell, some games can’t even pull this off today and FF7 pulled it off without blinking 15 years ago.

Oh, right, it’s an early PSX game so X and Circle are reversed.  That’s going to take me a while.

First battle contains no tutorial.  That’s kind of nice, actually.  Not that a JRPG really needs one at the beginning, but it’s refreshing.

Nevermind, was able to change my controls and switch those two buttons.  Wasn’t expecting that, but it’s definitely appreciated.

FF7, even early on, uses space in interesting ways, especially in the first elevator in the game, the camera not only uses this perspective, but it also pans up and down, the entire picture dropping from screen.  It’s an easy and cheap way to show that the elevator is moving through the building, but it’s still pretty effective.

Speaking of cinematic direction, I totally forgot that sometimes special attacks in battle change the camera angle.  It’s easy to see that this type of camera work would lead to some interesting battle direction decisions later in the series.  And, y’know what?  The battle theme is still pretty great.

Got through the first boss battle with no issue.  Kind of an impressive boss, a giant, red crab thing which seems to only serve as a tutorial for Limit Breaks.  Not that that’s a bad thing, mind you.  It wraps up the first dungeon with a 10-minute timed escape and AVALANCHE blowing up a giant reactor that’s likely powering a large part of Midgar.  And sucking the life out of the planet, too.  But, man, that was a huge explosion.  How many people did AVALANCHE kill in that blast?

As almost a direct juxtaposition to the last scene, Cloud is dumped into the middle of the slums, with a slow song in the backround: Anxious Heart, one of my favorites from the game.  FF7 does a good job early on giving you a sense of not only how huge Midgar is but how downtrodden its people are.  There’s the classic struggle between the haves and the have nots, combined with a certain amount of pride of the poor.  It’s just a shame that the storytelling is dragged down so much by the shoddy writing.  I understand why it would have happened at that time, but it’s very jarring to revisit.

But with that, I’ve stumbled upon another save point and decided to wrap up this first entry.  I’m surprised with how much I’m enjoying the game so far and I’m actually looking forward to playing more of it.  So look forward to the next entry in what’s likely to be my strangest experiment yet.

I was out of town, so this episode is up a little late, but we make it for it by taking a lot about Mass Effect 3, Skyrim, Oblivion, Final Fantasy IX, Devil Summoner: Overdrive, Devil Survivor 2, Ys: Oath In Felghana, Borderlands, and Final Fantasy XIII-2.

• Radiant Historia gets a reprint, please go buy it.
• Persona 4: The Arena has a release date and platforms. Yay Chie!
• Borderlands 2 comes out September 18th! Wub wub!
• Xseed rocks it again, is bringing out The Last Story in NA
• 999’s sequel, Virtue’s Last Reward announced for the US
• The second half of Persona 2 is getting the same treatment as the first part
• Pokemon White 2 and Black 2 announced, but with very few details
• Level-5 joins the ESA, is now a US publisher

But I’m better now that the release date has been announced for Borderlands 2.  Here’s the delightfully long trailer:

There are so, so many things to love about this trailer.  It’s nice to see a company truly have fun with its game.  And make fun of the over use of dubstep in recent trailers.

And damn does this game look amazing.  Cel shading like that makes me really want another Jet Set Radio.

We make up for not having very many news stories with a huge collection of games, like Diablo III (beta), Mass Effect 2, Final Fantasy IX, Chrono Trigger, Ys 3, Oblivion, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (demo), Skyrim, and Final Fantasy XIII-2.

• Crazy new details about Persona 4: The Golden
• Final Fantasy X HD announced to be a remaster, not a full remake

It’s been a quiet month for RPGs, but we played a whole bunch of Skyrim, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Devil Survivor: Overclocked, Mass Effect 1 and 2, Torchlight, Chrono Trigger, and Dragon Age 2.

• RUMOR: Diablo 3 release date, which Blizzard already debunked by the time I edited the show…
• Dark Souls may come to PC; sign the petition if you’re interested/hate yourself

Over the holidays, I was looking at my collection.  I’ve never posted a picture of it here (that would definitely happen if I wasn’t so comfortable on my couch while I’m writing this), but along one wall I have over 600 physical games staring me in the face.  I’m very proud of the collection I’ve been building since I was a kid, but there are always those games that we never get around to.  Either you get them cheap and throw them on the shelf for a rainy day, too many great games are out at once, or something doesn’t click.

I got the sinking feeling that there were far too many games in this gen and the last that I had either played for an hour and put on the shelf or didn’t even pull out of the cellophane.  The bad news is that most of those were purchased brand new, $60 a pop.

The total number of games that I haven’t finished?  75.

We talked about this issue on the latest episode of TVGP and I’ll spare the scary math here, too.  But, to say the least, I need to play the majority of these games before I flush more money down the toilet on brand new games that I won’t touch for far, far too long.

Since I have this humble blog, I thought I’d catalog my journey through this insane pile.  I thought the first round of Pile of Shame voting went very well, but it led to too much indecision.  I need a firm plan for tackling this gaming mountain, so I thought I’d take some inspiration from my good friend Brad.  He started working through his PoS in alphabetical order.  I think that’s such a fantastic idea that takes all o the guesswork out of what I need to play next that I’m going to shamelessly steal it.

I’ve taken all of the games across PS3, 360, PS2, PSP, and DS and I’ve thrown them into one gargantuan pile.  I’ll be sharing my thoughts about the progress through the pile and some wrap-ups for each game here as I go through.  I’d love to finish the entire pile this year.  Fingers crossed.

First in the pile is Afro Samurai.  Keep an eye out for a post about it after the next episode of the podcast.

#5: Dirt 3 / Portal 2

I sort of forgot about Portal 2 until we started recording, so I had to shoehorn it in here somewhere.  But what can I really say about Portal 2 that hasn’t already been said?  It’s a fantastic game with great characters, a good story, fun puzzles, and fantastic co-op.  And Valve somehow managed to make a sequel that didn’t feel unnecessary.

On the other end of the spectrum, Dirt 3 is another fantastic game in that series.  The first Dirt was great and the second improved on nearly everything (except for the horrible menus), but Dirt 3 really improved on so much.  Naturally there are more of everything, with more cars, tracks, and events.  Then Codemasters added snow (which, thankfully, isn’t cosmetic) and the gymkhana events, which were far more fun than they should have been.  And if you have a good PC, Dirt 3 looks spectacular.

#4: inFAMOUS 2

I somehow keep forgetting about the inFAMOUS games, even though I enjoy the hell out of them when they come out.  And inFAMOUS 2 is no exception.  Improving on some of the frustrations of the first, while keeping the best elements of the original, this was one hell of a sequel.  Moving the game to a New Orleans setting also helped, allowing for a bit more diversity in the environments.  I’m also a big fan of having the main enemy looming in the distance for the better part of the game.

#3: Xenoblade Chronicles

The JRPG that changed JRPGs.  That’s monumental enough to get this high on the list, but making a game that is actually fun and has enough content for over 100 hours?  That’s just incredible.  In a year that has seen the JRPG struggle against shooters with RPG elements and big-budget Western RPGs, it’s nice to see that at least one developer wants to keep moving the genre forward and fighting against the stagnation that can plague JRPGs. Thankfully it’s coming to North America so I don’t have to keep hoping that everyone else can play it.

#2: Dead Space 2

TVGP’s Game of the Year for 2011.  While maybe not as naturally scary as the first (likely because Isaac speaks), DS2 is a fantastic game.  It looks better, the combat is more fun, the weapons more varied, and the upgrade paths for weapons felt much better.  I wish I had more to say about the game, but I spent the entire year talking it up.  Go check it out (and if you haven’t played the first one, play that, too)

#1: Gears of War 3

I didn’t expect to fall in love with Gears 3, I really didn’t.  I had fun with the previous two Gears games, but never really fell head over heels like so many others did.  But the combination of everything in Gears 3 was too much for me to resist.  Each and every mode in the game is fun and/or fresh.  Of special mention is Arcade mode, where Epic has figured out how to get you to help and compete with your friends in yet another way.

The highest praise that I can give Gears 3 is that since it has gone into my 360 it has spent very, very little time out of it.  No game has done that for quite a long time.

That’s my list for this year!  Like 2010, 2011 was a hell of a year for games.  I sincerely hope that 2012 continues the tradition of delivering tons of great games that drain my wallet completely.

Looking forward to next year, I will have a post up soon about the changes I’m making to Pile of Shame.  The first experiment was successful, but I have a different way of doing it that takes all the guesswork out of it and cleans up my pile a bit faster.